Stellar Blade studio swears it wasn't doing anti-small-penis 'hate speech' in art that had men in a tizz, and promises it won't ever 'tolerate' it in future

You know, sometimes I feel like I've seen and heard it all in my three decades of living. Then a developer comes crashing in with an apology over a piece of official art where a small group of gamers have convinced themselves that it's some kind of radical feminist propaganda.

That's what's happened in the case of South Korean developer ShiftUp, anyhow. As reported by Automaton, the studio behind Stellar Blade and Nikke: Goddess of Victory found itself in hot water back in August over the latter game when it shared a piece of art commemorating the gacha's 1,000th day since launching in November 2022.

It's a cute piece of art, showcasing the Counters squad with Anis, Neon, and Rapi delivering a cake and presents. To someone like me, it's completely unassuming. To others, though, it was apparently a gigantic red flag of misandry.

That's thanks to the finger positions of Anis and Rapi, with some Korean players accusing the art of being a secret "jibgeson" or "crab hand" drawing. You know that pinched fingers emoji on your phone's keyboard? Not the Italian one, the other one. It was once the logo of now-defunct feminist movement website Megalian, and it kickstarted a conspiracy theory that the gesture was weaponised to mock men and imply that they have small penises.

The country has been dealing with some pretty severe gender inequality for a hot sec now—something which has only become more globally visible as Korean culture has risen in popularity—and jibgeson is just one of the things some men have been going out of their way to target in digital and real-life witch hunts as they revolt against feminism.

Those hunts have manifested themselves in different ways. Take this Apple ad showcasing the thinness of the iPhone Air—South Korea's website is the only one to have the fingers holding the phone removed. An animator told the BBC she received death threats after being accused of sneaking the hand gesture into a promotional video for MMO MapleStory.

Back to Nikke, the art was quickly revised following August's backlash, with Automaton reporting that the development team explained in its apology post that the commission had come from an overseas studio with no ill intentions.

Now, in a livestream celebrating the game's third anniversary, director Hyungsuk Yoo took a bit of time to indirectly comment on the situation. "We will never tolerate anyone intentionally inserting hate speech into Nikke or approaching the game with that mindset," he said during the stream (via ThisIsGame). He wrapped up by saying the developer had strengthened up its internal review process to ensure "recurrence of issues" doesn't happen in the future.

Of course, as someone who doesn't live in South Korea and has to deal with all that bullshit, I certainly have thoughts. My biggest is the fact that Anis and Rapi's hands simply look nothing like a pinching motion, to me. Anis is grabbing at her waist, while it looks like Rapi is either getting ready to grip the bedsheet or reaching towards something. Does the anatomy look a little wonky? Perhaps, but not in a "I'm sneaking in a misandric symbol" way.

It also doesn't feel great to see Hyungsuk going to bat for the people kicking up a fuss about this. Nikke's cast is almost entirely women—there isn't a single playable male, bar you as the protagonist (and Pascal from the Nier collaboration as a gender-neutral option) and only a small number of supporting non-playable characters who are men.

It's a game that entirely thrives off women existing, so to see pandering to a vocal minority who are staunchly anti-woman leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But at the end of the day, Nikke's playerbase is predominantly male, and ShiftUp is probably hoping it doesn't lose too many of its precious customers.